biting and hitting, please help!

Shannon - posted on 10/01/2009
(
3 moms have responded
)

39

14

1

my son is 13 months, and he's been biting and hitting and throwing temper tantrums. is this normal at this age? if i yell at him, he instantly tries biting me, or he throws things, and hits me. and today i picked him up from daycare only to find out he's started doing it to the other kids!! i've tried putting him in his bed when he does it, but its making it worse. im getting to the end of my wits with this, idk what to do. please help!

3 Comments

View replies by

Jaimee - posted on 10/01/2009

28

18

1

i am having this same issue with my 14mth old his been doing it since he was 12 mths my health nurse told me to put him in a chair as soon as he does it, if he does it again then to put him in his cot for 2min, i told her i was concerned that if i used his cot for naughty time he would think that wen i put him to bed for sleep he'd think his in trouble, she said that that wont happen. i havnt really been puting him in his cot for time out but havebeen using a chair, he seems to realise his in trouble but goes staright back to being naughty ive been told to be persistant though and that he will get the jist of it?

time outs. two minutes as soon as it happens. be firm and calm. and then move on w/your day. he'll catch on. i use the stairs in our house as the time out spot. i considered a "naughty chair" but they can always whip that at you if they get really unrulely.

I wouldn't punish him by putting him in his bed. You don't want him to associate being punished with his bed, nap time or bed time. Maybe try putting him in timeout for 1 minute. When he tries leaving time out before time is over keep putting him back in there no matter how hard it is. Its only a minute. You also want to make sure you have a timer or something he can hear go off so he eventually learns that it means he can leave time out and the punishment is over. It is normal for children that age to do those things. We get the fun part of teaching them no. I'd also ask your pediatrician just in case they have a better solution. You do want to try to reward them for good behavior so they will try to do it more often. Kids want attention whether its good or bad. When they are doing things like screaming to get what they want, you want to completely ignore them no matter what. My son use to head butt the floor, wall and anything around because he knew that it got my attention and when my pediatrician said to just ignore him and put him in the safest place possible until he calmed down I noticed that it works. It'll be hard at 1st, but it gets easier once you establish it. I hope this helps.